[chico20854]

January 22, 1998

Noting in canon for the day

The El Paso area is on the verge of being overwhelmed by streams of refugees from Mexico. 9th Texas Brigade’s harsh methods of dealing with the flow soon cause tensions with the Mexican government.

The destroyer USS Morton, approaching Kenya through the Indian Ocean, is intercepted by an A-1 Skyraider of the 2nd Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, which is performing a routine surface sweep.

The first evacuation flights of F-16s depart Hahn Air Base in the occupied zone to Jever Air Base near the German North Sea Coast.

Several German corps (VI, X, XI and XII Korps) are repositioned internally to reinforce the remnants of the territorials that were overrun during the French invasion as well as provide internal security and spread the burden of supporting troops across larger areas.

Within the US Army in Europe, instructions are issued to selectively deactivate subordinate units, reassigning their remaining troops and equipment to other subunits pending receipt of limited numbers of additional troops from rear area, naval and air force commands. Commanders are given wide discretion to promote soldiers who displayed leadership aptitude over the preceding months into leadership positions, pending receipt of additional troops.

7th Army and 4th Army's G-4s (supply officers) issue a directive to centralize control of key supplies currently held at division and corps level. Fuel, rations, guided missiles, MLRS rockets, chemical and tactical nuclear weapons and FASCAM, ICM and Assault Breaker artillery rounds are all to be managed centrally; initially commanders must cease issuing them without further permission and report stock on hand, permitting US Army Europe to reallocate these scarce resources to where most needed.

To the west, French Army commanders are taken aback by the sheer quantity of US Army and USAF materiel to be evacuated as American commanders refuse to abandon the smallest scrap of assets built up in over 50 years of occupation. Belgian Air Force technicians complete the transfer of the first F-16A, handing it over to a small American team that inspects the aircraft before flying it off to Jever Air Base.

Rains in eastern Africa begin to slow military operations as the limited road network, already heavily damaged by fighting and overtaxed even in peacetime, degrades under flooding and poor drainage. The weather also limits aerial resupply operations, even if the small fleet of support aircraft (and requisitioned civilian aircraft) had fuel and sufficient capacity to resupply the fighting forces.